Big Black Shiny Boots
Mark Stewart
Synopsis
A fragile elderly lady waits behind closed doors for the next person to arrive to either evict her or to steal her belongings to pay for the rent.
She has other ideas.
Copyright: 2011 Big Black Shiny Boots by Mark Stewart. All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. This story is fictitious and a product of the author’s imagination. Resemblance to any actual person living or dead is purely coincidental. www.markstewart.com.au email: mark_stewart777@hotmail.com
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook can be shared with other people, but can’t be sold or made into another form without consent from the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
A BLACK car pulled into the curb in front of a big old green painted weather board house. A tall solid built man wearing big black shiny boots stepped onto pea stones and walked towards the house.
Each one of the five wooden steps leading to the front door creaked under the man’s weight. He rapped white knuckles in quick succession on the unpainted front door and as he waited was tapping his foot over a small hole on the rotten floorboard.
Footsteps came then suddenly ceased.
The tall man in the big black shiny boots smirked. He pounded on the door again.
“Just a minute,” came a high-pitched whispered croak.
A bent silver key was inserted into the rusting lock. A chain rattled as it was slid from its home. Then the rusting doorknob was slowly turned.
“Hurry up,” growled the man.
A little old dear lifted her deep wrinkled face and stared at the stranger wearing the big black shiny boots. Tears welled in her eyes.
“I’ve come for the landlord’s money,” spat the man.
The frail old woman with bent shoulders leaned on her walking stick, trembling. She shuffled two steps back.
The man clicked his fingers. “Money or get out.”
“Oh dear.” The old woman’s voice was a ghostly gasp. She tried to push the door shut.
The man slapped the door open with a palmed hand and stepped into the heavily shadowed room. “You’ve given me your answer. Step aside. I’ll take what I can.”
The old woman’s long piano fingers curled themselves around a dust covered pink pillow. “Get out or I’ll hit you with my pillow.”
The man threw his head back and laughed. “Go ahead give me your best shot.” He stooped and stuck out his chin.
The frail old woman grunted and, as hard as she could, pulled the pillow over her head and down on the man’s head.
Un-blinking the man stared at the pillow and then crumbled to the floor.
The old lady threw the pillow on a side table. Frozen lard spilled out of the pillowcase and crashed heavily onto the floor.
Outside a dog howled at the rising full moon.
The woman crouched in the shadows of the house and howled too.
As the sun set all that remained of the man was his big black shiny boots. They sat on a shelf next to all the others.
The woman watched the front door from inside a cupboard waiting for the next victim to arrive.
Dear reader,
thank you for reading my short story, ‘Big black shiny boots.’ I do hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback is gratefully accepted. The information you, the reader give, helps me to become a more professional author.
My novels and short stories are based on the Australian culture. Some of the spelling is Australian. Thanks for your understanding.
Again thank you for your support, for without you, the reader, I wouldn’t have anyone to read my work.
Mark Stewart
Email: mark_stewart777@hotmail.com
www.markstewart.com.au
Other novels I have written in the way of romance are: Kiss on the bridge. The perfect gift: Legendary blue diamond. Due out 10th April 2012. A vampire romance is the blood red rose and the tainted rose will follow shortly.
Crime novels: Fire Games/ publish America. Heart of a spider and I know your secret.
Children: A Troglian knows and Luke’s cubby house. Malcolm’s cubby house is completely different/ publish America.
Smashwords has various short stories.
Below is the opening page of my novels in order that I have listed them:
Synopsis: Kiss on the bridge. Adventure romance. Available Smashwords.
How would you react if a tall handsome stranger came up to you on new-years-eve and asked for a kiss?
Kiss on the bridge is set in the year 1974. Cyclone Tracy made land fall in Darwin on 25th December 1974 at 9:55am desecrating Darwin. After Tracy had swept the state there was nothing left except this story. Out of the ruins love sparked and mushroomed between Anneli and Wade. They were destined to meet and tell their story for decades to come.
Synopsis: The Perfect Gift. Adventure romance. Available Smashwords.
Naomi is twenty-six and doesn’t like the way all men mistreat her. She decides a change is needed and applies to be a jillaroo on a cattle station named the Oasis. Its location is in outback Australia. She meets a cowboy, Trent, who is a rodeo champion. They agree on a bet. Eventually both want out, but neither wants to be first.
Through a series of adventures that stretch from the city, to a fast flowing river in the outback where Trent must save Naomi from drowning, love germinates in the middle of a storm.
In her heart, Naomi is a woman who adores the city’s nightlife, but as the sun sets on each day, the Australian outback is enticing and the excitement of the city fades. Then she inadvertently saves the Oasis.
Love is growing, then Brandt; Naomi’s obsessive ex-boyfriend tracks her down. Can Trent save her one last time?
Synopsis: Legendary Blue Diamond. Adventure romance. Available April 20th 2012
HISTORIANS AND researchers say the birth of the legendary blue diamond originated when the earth was being born. Some say the legend commenced at the union between a man who had skin, the colour of the night sky and a woman who had skin the colour of the sun. Rumour has it that the diamond was no larger than a single carrot. Lately there have been whispers that the deep blue coloured diamond was reported to be in excess of nine carrots possibly even ten or higher. What I believe isn’t important, though I assume it lays somewhere in between. There’s been bush talk from the Australian Kimberley’s to Melbourne; whosoever touches the blue stone will die, for it is cursed by God. I believe it is due to man’s greed and the blood that drips from his hands is the truth behind the cursed stone.
I have extensively researched a great number of books on the subject looking for a start date to the authenticity of the legend. I think I may have uncovered the actual events, but I have no way of proving if the facts are correct. I have been able to ascertain the legend was born around the mid 1800’s AD when the State bank of Victoria was in its infancy. A gold prospector unearthed the diamond. In days he had sold it. The buyer was a man in charge of the bank. The diamond was indeed dark blue in colour, but definitely a one off, stroke of luck find. One cold dark night a bushranger, his brother and a third man came into a small town searching for the blue diamond. They never found it. The banker was tortured for the information of the stone’s where-a-bouts. He took the knowledge of its existence to his grave. Of late a possible theory has been circulating that the man’s wife has it in her possession. How she escaped from being murdered was any one’s guess.
If you ask me, do I believe in the story, I’ll answer you truthfully. I know it only to be a legend.
Synopsis: Blood Red Rose. Vampire adventure romance. Available on Smashwords.
“You can’t force me to drink that, I’m innocent,” yelled Haleton. “Rose-a-lee what have you done?”
There was no reply.
William Haleton is a normal man looking for love and the good life then the council of four modifies his DNA and uses him as a guinea pig. They transform him into a vampire. Pleading his innocence falls on deaf ears.
Haleton is hungry for the next evil soul, but deep down he has a burning desire for the love of a girl. Her blood is sweet and hypnotic. Her genetic makeup is his perfect match.
Being transported again through time is not an option.
The clock is ticking.
Haleton will do anything to stay by Amber’s side, but is it possible for her to love him? Can Craig Benyon, Amber’s close friend, be trusted? After all he loves her as much as William Haleton.
If an antidote to the vampire’s curse is found in time, will it be successful, or is everything Haleton going through part of the vampire curse?
Synopsis: Fire Games. Crime. First book in the series. Available only from publish America.
Detective Alan Kendal puts his life on the line to outplay the psychotic arsonist known as Patrick.
Detective Kendal is ordered to team up with Detective Claire Ambroso, whom he’s known since school, but she carries a secret and he has a grey past. Which one will come forward to haunt first? Kendal grows suspicious of his new partner when she aims her gun directly at him and pulls the trigger. What’s her motive? Is she Patrick’s accomplice? If not, who is?
How can Patrick always be one step ahead? Does Kendal have enough time to rescue his kidnapped twelve-year-old daughter, Tegan, before Patrick’s fiery finale?
Synopsis: Heart of a spider. Crime. Second book in the series. Available Smashwords.
Detective Kendal is on the trail of a patient who has escaped the mental institution and wants to sever Kendal’s life line. The chase is complicated by the visitation of a ghost and the appearance of a supposed vigilante.
Kendal doesn’t believe in ghosts, but finds himself having a conversation as he stares at one. His partner, Claire Ambroso has to fight for her life when Kendal is told to meet GP at the wharf when the moon is at the highest point in the night sky.
Confusion sets in at a local supermarket when a robbery goes wrong and someone in Kendal’s family is shot.
The trap is set for the person who masterminded the escape and a final shoot out at the hospital reveals amazing results that astounds even Kendal.
Synopsis: I know your secret. Crime. Third book in the series. Available Smashwords.
Everyone has a secret. Some people take theirs to the grave. Some hold their desires inside for a lifetime. Some stew on their secret all their life, and then they get revenge.
I know your secret is a suspenseful crime novel. Melbourne homicide detective Alan James Kendal and his partner Detective Claire Ambroso have to locate a missing teenage girl. The case hots up when he is introduced to a medium. She seems to hold all the knowledge of the case except a few minor details, like, why did Kendal find an empty bullet shell that had a note inside that read, ‘I was paid to miss.’
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